Gayathri Jayaram
Describes Her Malaysian Visit
(Source : www.dinakaran.com)
Actress Gayathri Jayaram says:
"I have been to foreign countries countless number of times before....But it is for the first time I visited Malaysia recently, to take part in a film's shooting there! "Nee Varum Paathaiyellaam" is the film's name! To work for this film, its hero Vimal, cameraman Ganeshram, dance master Shanthikumar, ditector Puvi, myself and others were camping in Malaysia.
"I stayed at Pearl International Hotel in Malaysia. On the very first day, I slipped and fell down into the tub in the bathroom! A sudden feeling of bad omen instantly seized me....But my good luck...nothing serious followed!...In Kualalumpur, dance duet scenes, performed by Amsavirdhan and myself were shot. The musical scores composed by Bharathwaj is the gem of this film. They shot the song scenes by positioning Amsavirdhan and myself right at the centre of the Malaysian highway, in the midst of heavy vehicular traffic!
"As I had earlier gone to Malaysia for taking part in the victory function of the film "April Maathaththil", the Malaysian fans easily recognized me during my latest visit and gathered around me for getting autograph from me. Oriental Village is situated at Lungaavi Island area. "Nee Varum Paathaiyellam" has earned the distinction of being the first film ever to be shot at this popular location.. More than one hundred, small, small islands remain scattered around this area, and the entire scenary could be clearly viewed by us by ourselves sitting in the cable cars that roam in the air by sliding along the rope-way! We were then shrouded by 42 degree heat waves that was combined with the salt-air flowing from the near-by sea. All this changed my very skin colour that turned out to be greyish black. As I reached Chennai, my mother could not believe her own eyes as to identify me as her daughter Gayathri....!
"In Kualampur-Lungaavi, the sun does not fade away until it is 8 0' clock in the night....So, the day's shooting that starts early in the morning at 7 a.m. gets wound up only at 8-30 in the night. On all the 8 days that we stayed there I took only my dinner! Since I am very fond of only vegetarian food, I didn't even turn to the side where snake soup and cockroach fry had been displayed....! Even the very thought of those items induced a vomiting sensation in me".
She has said so.
She has given the following, specific answers to the questions put to her:
Question: A strong image about your person, meaning that you are a glamour heroine, has been registered in peoples' minds...When are going to change it?
Answer: My introductory film as heroine, "Manathai Thirudi Vittaai", is the cause for it all! In it, they picturized me very glamorously in song scenes. At that time I did not have sufficient knowledge of either the camera angle or the costume. So they gave me very small piece of dress and insisted that I should wear only that little piece of costume.
"You would have got stunned had you seen the small piece of dress I was insisted upon to wear for performing in the "Manjakkaattu Mainaa....." song scene.....I stiffly refused to oblige! Finally, I did one thing...I just stitched a sun flower, which I took away from my head pin, as to overlap and cover part of the piece of my dress. Seeing the final 'look' of the dress, that was thus modified by me, on the screen in theatre, all the journals then made the scathing comment in chorus that my scantily spread dress was glamour personified....! Now you imagine how much more stunningly glamorous the original dress, which they first offered me, might have been! They made me pose in so many different angles for taking still photographs of me. From among those photo stills, they chose a particular one for which I had given pose by folding my body in a curved style....This particular still was published for advertisement purposes! As a result, my very name overnight became a synonym for glamour in the entire Tamil film industry..... The film "Sree", acted by me, was released after "Manathai Thirudi Vittaai". "Sree" was a flop as for my role was concerned. Next, "April Maathaththil" was released. I acted in a glamour role in it. This film gave me full satisfaction. The next released "Vaseekaraa" also earned very good name for me! What type of role an actress gets in her very first film, does normally get repeated in her subsequent films too. I acted in stunning glamour roles in two films.....Now offers have started flowing in, requesting me to do the same type of role in my next films too. But, I have rejected them. Now, in the film, "Nee Varum Paathaiyellaam", I have acted in an excellent role that enunciates so much importance only to my acting talent. This role does not have even the least trace of glamour.... After this film, I will act in such films that carry with them so much scope for not merely the aspect of glamour but also to my acting talent.
Question: Could we conclude that you may be totally quitting glamour type of roles?
Answer: Don't come to such a conclusion... People request me to do glamour roles. But those, who are making "Nee Varum Paathaiyellaam", have shown so much guts as to assign a character role to me that has lot of scope for good acting. I have acted in the film in a more praiseworthy manner than thay originally expected. The audience who will see the film will definitely appreciate me and enjoy my way of acting in it. After this film, my image will definitely change. I assure this. Simply going after only glamour roles won't guarantee a stable standing in cine field.
Gayathri Jayaram says so.
'Acting came naturally', Gayathri Jayaram
(Source : www.indiavarta.com)
March 8, 2003
AN award for the first movie that you act is rare. So when Gayathri Jayaram won an award for Best Actress from the Cine Film Fans Association for her role in Neela, she was ecstatic. ��It came as a real surprise since acting was not what I wanted to do for a career,�� says Gayathri.
Rather, Gayathri wanted to be a physiotherapist. She even pursued science to make it into the field of medicine. But destiny had other plans. She took part in Miss Tamil Nadu 1997 and Miss South India 1998, both of which she won. Modelling assignments followed, accompanied by offers from television channels. ��I started anchoring Ilamai Pudumai for Sun TV and Telephone Manipol for Vijay TV,�� she says.
In 2000, she took part in the Femina Miss India contest which according to her changed the whole course of her life even though she did not win the title. ��I started getting modelling offers, which were mostly in Mumbai. So I shifted to Mumbai. While I was there, my roommate, who is also a model, said a movie crew were looking for someone to act in one of their songs. Since I was not at all interested in acting, I decided to let it pass. But when I got to know that it was Santosh Sivan who was directing the movie (Asoka), I jumped at it. He is one of my favourite directors and to top it Shah Rukh Khan was acting in it. I knew it was a small role, but this was a lifetime opportunity which I did not want to miss out,�� she says.
What followed was her cameo role in the song Raat ka nasha in Asoka. Though her parents were not keen on her entering films, Gayathri�s mom saw the interest her daughter had in acting and changed her mind. ��She saw that I was very comfortable in front of the camera and also that the stories which usually surround the cinema world were not true,�� she says.
After Asoka, the movie Neela came as a stark contrast because this was an art film with no glamour. So what made her take it up? ��I did not want to begin with a movie in which a heroine was just required to play second fiddle to the hero. Neela was a heroine-oriented movie, one that was not easy to execute but worth every bit of effort,�� she says. With no knowledge of Kannada, Gayathri knew that she would have to begin from the scratch if she had to give a convincing performance in her first movie. She began with taking Kannada lessons from a tutor and also had another one to teach her folk dance.
��I played the role of a tribal girl in the movie. She comes from a family of dancers. I needed to be as convincing as I could,�� she says. Convincing she definitely was, which bagged her the Cine Fans Association and Cinema Express Awards for best actress. Movies like Manathai Thirudi Vittai and Aaduthu Paaduthu in Telugu followed. And her yet-to-be released movies include Vaseegara with Vijay and Nee Varum Pathaellam with new face Vimal.
A person who believes in quality than quantity, Gayathri prefers to do work that will keep her happy. ��I�m not here to do six or seven movies per year. I would prefer to keep the numbers down and do quality movies.��